Art, Archaeology and Christian Identity in Contemporary Lebanon and Syria

Abstract

In western society, as in the rest of the world, the vast majority of teenagers mould their identity by reacting to the world around them. However this sense of identity is unlikely in the early twenty-first century to be predicated by religion; music, sport, fashion and choice of friends are the elements by which schoolchildren and students define themselves and, with the notable exception of some members of minority religions, Faith is unlikely to play a major part in their formation of “self”. There is little understanding as to why immigrant Muslim, Sikh or Hindu communities place such a high value on their children remaining within the orbit of the local place of worship, as religion is seen by many of the white majority as a peripheral part of life.